September 8, 1901.
Queen Margherita of Italy has released a statement following the attack on the life of U.S. President McKinley: "These things come the hardest on the women, and at least poor Mrs. McKinley should, in her state of health, have been spared."
The dowager queen can certainly relate to the situation. In 1900, her husband, King Umberto I, was killed by an assassin's bullet.
Queen Regent Maria Cristina sent a wire to President McKinley, "expressing her indignation at the outrage," and she wished a "happy and speedy recovery" for the American president.
King Edward VII, who is in Denmark, sent the following telegram to the US ambassador to the Court of St. James: "I rejoice to hear the favorable account of the President's health. God grant that his life be preserved."
The Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, who is the regent for Prince Carl Eduard of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and the governments of Coburg, Gotha and Meiningen, asked the US consult in Coburg to convey their deepest sympathy.
The attempt on President McKinley's life took place on September 6, 1901 at the Temple of Music at the Pan-American exposition, in Buffalo, New York.
Former President Grover Cleveland, who was in fishing in Massachusetts, when he learned of the assassination attempt. He said he was horrified by the news. "With all American citizens, I am greatly shocked at the news. I cannot conceive of a motive. It must have been the act of a crazy man."
The assailant is an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, of Cleveland, Ohio. He was immediately taken into police custody. He said he was a follower of fellow anarchist, Emma Goldman, and he decided that the "present form of government for this country was all wrong."
Although Mrs, McKinley had accompanied her husband on this trip, she did not attend this event.
Czolgosz, who fully confessed to the crime, was only two feet away from the President when he fired the shots. The President did have Secret Service protection.
Although it first appeared that the President would recover from his injuries -- he was sitting up and receiving nourishment on September 12th, he soon went into shock and died on September 14, due to gangrene in the wound.
An Associated Press reporter was the first to inform former President Cleveland about McKinley's death. The former president was at his home in Princeton, New Jersey.
"This is dreadful news and the more cruel because it strikes down the confident and comforting expectation which all our people were encouraged to entertain that their President would be saved from death. In the afflictive gloom surrounding this third Presidential murder within the memory of men not yet old, we can scarcely keep out of mine a feeling of stunning amazement that in free America, blessed with a Government consecrated to popular welfare and contentment, the danger of assassination should ever encompass the faithful discharge of the highest official duty. It is hard at such a time as this to calmly and patiently await the unfolding of the purpose of God."
Grover Cleveland remains the only US president to serve two nonconsecutive terms. He was first elected in 1884, but was defeated by Benjamin Harrison four years later. The situation was reversed in 1892 when Cleveland, again the Democratic nominee, defeated Harrison. He declined an opportunity to run for a third term. The Democratic candidate in 1896 was William Jennings Bryant, who was defeated by William McKinley.
McKinley won re-election in 1900. He is one of four US presidents who were assassinated while in office. The other three are: Abraham
m Lincoln (1860), James Garfield (1881) and John F. Kennedy (1963). At the time of McKinley's death, Grover Cleveland was the only living former president. Benjamin Harrison had died earlier in the year.
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